In computer programming, a code is considered deprecated when other code (a “consumer”) is formally discouraged from using the deprecated code. Code may be deprecated for many different reasons. The deprecated code may suffer from a security vulnerability, poor performance, failure to adhere to a design standard, or some other flaw. The deprecated code may be considered extraneous and/or disfavored relative to other code that is available. The deprecated code may belong to a larger set of code that is slated for a redesign. The deprecated code may be approaching a point in time after which the deprecated code will no longer be supported by a developer (sometimes referred to as “end of life”). At some point, deprecated code may be removed from a system entirely. Deprecated code may be removed from a system in the course of an upgrade to a new version that omits the deprecated code, or in some other way. When deprecated code is removed from a system, other code that relies on the deprecated code may become unreliable, degraded, or inoperable. The other code may fail to compile or execute entirely. Accordingly, when code is deprecated, developers of other code may seek to avoid relying on the deprecated code as soon as reasonably possible.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.